BA strike to begin on Monday

Thursday, 20 May 2010 5:18 PM

By politics.co.uk staff

British Airways (BA) cabin crew will go on strike for five days starting on Monday.

The new strike dates come after the Unite union won its battle against a high court injunction preventing cabin crew from going on strike.

The decision followed three days of consideration by three of Britain's top judges and marked a major victory for the union, which branded the original injunction an attack on free trade unionism.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "This is an important victory. I hope it marks a halt to the recent run of arbitrary legal judgements where employers have found it all too easy to get courts to find in their favour and prevent employees from exercising their democratic right to take strike action."

The industrial dispute between British Airways and cabin staff shows no sign of dying down although there are modest hopes that talks between now and Monday might prevent any further industrial action.

Most of the original issues have now been put to bed, but BA's decision to take away travel perks from striking staff has prolonged the dispute and the series of four five-day strikes will be difficult to prevent.

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